The Closeness A Simple Touch Can Bring
by Anime Crazed
Summary: Stress is giving Ryou a hard time, so Bakura goes to give him a simple massage to help release the tension. Shounenai, Ryou and Bakura fluffiness!


Hey there! Long time no see! This has been in progress for a while, writers block has decided to take up a permanent residence with me. Anyways, enough excuses, I've finally written another fic! How exciting! Now, onto the usual stuff...

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yugioh, plain and simple. Kazuki Takahashi does.

**Warning:** This fic contains shounen ai. That's boyxboy love. If you don't like it, then please, don't read. You've been warned.

The pairings in this fic are Ryou and Bakura, with Yugi and Yami (Atemu) implied... Malik and Marik too... but I don't think that one is in this fic. Also, there's suggested stuff in here. I'm not good enough to write anything graphic... and it'll stay that way for a while, so you're going to have to use your imaginations.

One last thing... currently, this is an AUone shot, and that's how it'll stay... unless I get a super idea and need to write more. Please, read and review!

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Ryou slammed his locker door shut and brushed silvery bangs out of his bright green eyes as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I feel the same way," a cheerful voice said.

"Thank Ra it's the weekend, right Yugi?"

Yugi nodded, "Yup, quality me and Atemu time! I should get going… Atemu will be waiting for me!"

Ryou waved and leaned up against the cool metal of his locker.

"Are you wishing that was you leaving early to return home to your special someone?" a voice whispered seductively in his ear, causing Ryou to jump.

"Jeeze Malik, don't _do_ that! You know it drives me nuts!"

"Only because you _like_ it…"

Ryou glared.

"Aw, come on, I'm kidding! You should think yourself lucky. I only use that tone on Marik," Malik said, poking his tongue out.

"I know, I know."

"So… have you told him yet?"

Ryou shook his head, "You ask me that every day. And every day you get the same answer."

"Ryouuuu!" Malik whined, "You've liked him for over a year! Heck, I'd say it's even longer than that; you're completely _dense_ when it comes to liking someone. Though, it is sort of cute, if you think about it," Malik put a hand to his chest, "An unrequited love that a poor teen yearns to have returned, only he's afraid that the hands of the one he loves will crush his fragile heart, causing him to feel nothing put eternal pain and loneliness… but seriously, it's not healthy keeping emotions bottled up inside of you, believe me…"

"Thanks… but it's probably better he doesn't know about how I feel. He's probably fawning over some drop dead gorgeous girl while I'm at school."

"That's a heap of crap and you know it," Malik snapped, "You're just as gorgeous, if not more so than a lot of girls I've ever met," Ryou went to object but Malik held up a hand to silence the silver haired teen, "You're also much kinder than a lot of them, you've actually shared a body with him and have been through stacks together – whether he likes that fact or not is beside the point… also," he thought for a moment, thinking of a fifth reason as to why Bakura might (and probably does) like Ryou, he smiled as he thought of a final point, "Also… you can cook. I can guarantee that Bakura wouldn't date anyone unless they could cook."

"Or at least stomach his some of his strange tastes…" Ryou said dryly, "Well, I'd better get going. I want to do that maths homework tonight before the weekend begins."

"Have fun!" Malik said sarcastically, "Oh! And call me if anything interesting happens!" he called with a wink.

Ryou shook his head and smiled, "Nothing interesting will happen, you can bet on it!"

"Alright, fifty bucks says something interesting will happen! And call me!"

"You're on, Malik!" Ryou called with a wave. Huddling into his jacket a little more, Ryou walked home, deep in thought.

When he first met the Spirit of the Ring, Ryou wasn't sure what he felt towards him. Anger? Hate? Jealousy? As time went by, Ryou's muddled feelings managed to finally sort themselves out. At first, whenever Bakura looked at him, thanked him – anything – it was the barest hint of a smile that would grace Ryou's lips. As his feelings made themselves known to the teen, Ryou grew panicky. Although Bakura now had his own physical body – which meant that Ryou's body was now his own – the effects of Ryou acting as a host to Bakura's spirit were still there. There were times that Ryou's spirit would go to retreat to his soul room, only to find the door firmly locked, forcing his soul to remain in control of his body. Most of all, however, the link that they shared was as strong as ever. Sure, it came in handy quite often, but since Ryou had finally figured out his feelings, acknowledged and accepted them, he found it became more and more bothersome. Ryou, who didn't want to risk his darker half from finding out, discovered how to suppress his thoughts and feelings, thus stopping them from being leaked down the link that the two teens shared. Although this successfully stopped Bakura from finding out how Ryou felt about him, it put pressure on Ryou's mind and body. As Malik had told him countless times, "It's not healthy keeping emotions bottled up inside of you!" however, because Ryou didn't want to bother anyone, he kept his thoughts completely to himself and managed to always mask his true emotions with a bright smile.

Ryou walked up to the front door, sighed and plastered a smile on his face as he opened the door.

"I'm home," he said to the figure sitting on the lounge, keeping the warm feeling that filled him from going down the link.

Bakura turned from the T.V and looked at Ryou, his gaze clearly saying 'I know you're hiding something from me' but before Ryou could really make sure he'd seen it, the look was gone.

"Welcome home," Bakura said before turning back to the T.V.

"I have no idea how you watch those soapies," Ryou sniffed the air, "Did you burn something?" he asked, walking into the kitchen.

"I was hungry, so I made some toast," came Bakura's voice from the door.

"You didn't kill the toaster, did you? And have we any bread left?" Ryou took two mugs out of a cupboard and put sugar and powdered chocolate into them.

"The toaster is fine," Bakura pouted and Ryou suppressed a smile while filling the mugs with hot water, "And we have half a loaf left."

"So what did you burn then?" Ryou asked, handing Bakura a mug.

"The other half," he smirked, as he went back into the lounge room.

Ryou turned to the sink and found a nice little stack of charred slices of toast, some of the less-burned ones even had butter on them and bites taken from them. Ryou smiled to himself and put the slices in the bin. Somehow, he found it oddly cute that Bakura had made a neat little pile of burned bits of nibbled toast.

"I'm going to do some homework."

Bakura waved a hand sat down to begin playing one of Ryou's many RPG games on the PlayStation, grumbling every time his character died.

Ryou sat at the table in the lounge room with a sigh. After staring blankly at the table for a few minutes, Ryou slowly took his books from his bag.

_Only 25 questions,_ the teen thought to himself. Looking at the page, he noted that each question had a, b, and c questions or i, ii and iii questions. Groaning, he rubbed his temples; the headache that was slowly getting worse wouldn't be getting any better soon.

_So many headaches lately… maybe… no, I'll do this first. Only 25 questions…_

Bakura didn't know how long he'd been playing for when he felt the beginnings of a headache. Grumbling to himself, he turned the game off and went to grab a glass of water. Returning to the lounge room, he went over to a small cupboard near the television. Opening the cupboard, Bakura picked up a small bottle and placed a few drops of it into an oil burner. Returning the little bottle to its place, he picked up a second one and placed a few drops of that oil in as well. After lighting the tiny candle in the oil burner, he stretched out on the lounge, covering his eyes with his arm, breathing in the scents of lavender and peppermint. Suppressing the headache so it wouldn't disturb Ryou, Bakura lay still for a while, hoping that the oils in the burner would help it go away soon.

Ryou blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked at the page again.

"Ra damn it!" He cursed under his breath, putting his now pounding head on the cool wood of the table, doing his best to stop Bakura from feeling his headache and frustration. Grumbling to himself about answering question twenty-three twice, Ryou took a deep breath then closed his eyes and began counting backwards from ten to refocus. He was at number five when he felt gentle hands move through his silver tresses and begin gently rubbing his pounding head.

Green eyes opened in surprise.

"Wh… what are you doing?"

"Do you know how long you've been doing that maths homework for?"

"An hour or so?"

"Try three and a half," Bakura said, continuing to massage Ryou's head.

"So what's this about?" Ryou asked, closing his eyes as Bakura's soothing movements dulled the pain in his head a little.

"That's one heck of a headache you've got."

"Sorry, I'll take some Panadol," the teen said, about to stand up.

"You finished that off yesterday."

"No way," Ryou said, tilting his head back, looking Bakura in the face.

"How bad is it?"

Ryou sighed and opened the link, wincing as he felt the full force of his headache.

"Ah! Shit Ryou, what the hell? You've been putting up with this?"

Ryou managed a small smile; "I wanted to get my homework done before I took Panadol because it makes me sleepy… I didn't think it would get this bad. I'm sorry for it bothering you. But… we have no Panadol left, and the chemist is closed, so I'll just have to put up with it… though I don't think I can close the link again… I've lost my concentration."

"You wont be able to do anything with a headache like that, not even sleep."

"But, there's no Panadol… what can I do? I've been getting so many headaches lately…"

"It's due to stress and tension that you're putting on your body. Panadol doesn't really fix it. It just stops the pain for a little while. What you need to fix is the muscles that are tense so that you don't get the headaches in the first place. Resolving the source of stress also helps. I might not be the nicest person, but I'm not about to let a headache like this bother you…" Bakura trailed off, "Because it's annoying me," he quickly added, averting his gaze, and taking his hands from Ryou's hair, resiting the urge to fix the tousled locks, "I know some things that will help loosen your muscles and might make your headache at little better at least."

Ryou just looked at Bakura. _He's actually being nice to me…"_Ryou thought somewhat dazedly.

"Get changed into something comfortable, then come back downstairs."

"Why?"

"A massage will help relax your muscles," Bakura said, going to the small cupboard neat the television on search of some oil as Ryou went upstairs.

Bakura carefully poured some oil into a small amber jar and added a few drops of various other oils before inverting the bottle a few times to make sure the oils were mixed.

" 'Do something nice for him!' they tell me. Like that's going to work. I'm never nice," he grumbled to himself. Ra damned friends! Why couldn't they keep their noses out of his non-existent love life? They just had to make it their business. Of course, it wasn't Marik's fault that he knew Bakura so well… but is _was_ his fault that the Pharaoh knew. He'd overheard Marik talking to Bakura about various ways to make his feelings known, and the Pharaoh just happened to feel he needed to help his old enemy in the affairs of love. Marik, and coincidentally, Atemu didn't find it surprising that the once supposedly heartless tomb robber had fallen for his lighter half. In fact, they thought it to be perfectly normal – Ryou being the other half of his torn soul and all. The thing that annoyed Bakura the most were the outrageous suggestions that the Pharaoh and Marik kept giving him; so far their 'advice' had been completely useless to him. Though today, Atemu had been completely different. At around three in the afternoon – not that long before Ryou returned home from school, Bakura had received a phone call.

"Bakura speaking," he answered gruffly.

"It's Atemu. I have some advice for you."

"If it's anything stupid I'll –" Bakura was cut off.

"I know, I know. Our suggestions have been far from helpful; we're just too different from you. But I was thinking…"

"Oh dear… I hope you didn't hurt yourself."

Atemu glared down the phone, "Ha, ha. Seriously though, the best advice I can give you is that the right time to tell him will come eventually. Be patient and wait for it. Don't think about it and when the time does present itself, do not hesitate – just go with it. You'll know when to tell him. Just…" Atemu chose his next words carefully, "Be yourself."

"Like that'll work."

"I mean your true self, tomb robber; the one that you hide from everyone, the side that you'll only let your light see. I know it's there. I see genuine tenderness in your eyes when you steal glances at him."

"Very observant, Atemu. You may have made a fine tomb robber back in the day."

"Bakura, really. Don't hesitate. Go for it. Show Ryou you really care for him and that your exterior is only an exterior. Show him that you have a gentle side. Yugi says that Ryou hides an awful lot of his feelings. It's just a feeling he has about it. He's very worried about him. Yugi will only tell me that you can fix it."

Bakura had been thinking about what Atemu had said all afternoon, and when Ryou came home, Bakura knew that tonight he'd tell him, one way or another.

Bakura was brought back from his thoughts when Ryou walked down the stairs.

"Umm…what exactly are you doing?"

The ancient tomb robber looked up from what he was doing. Ryou had put on a pair of baggy jeans and a black t-shirt.

"What?" Ryou asked when he noticed the other teen staring at him.

"I didn't know you had clothes like that," Bakura said softly, not missing the pain that was evident in Ryou's eyes because of his headache.

"They're comfy," Ryou said defensively. He knew that the baggy jeans were pretty different than usual but…

"I like it. Looks good on you…" _What are you saying?_ Bakura thought furiously, then he remembered Atemu's words – "Don't hesitate – go for it… Show him that you have a gentle side."

"So what are you doing? Like, all this stuff?" Ryou motioned to the various candles that were lit on the coffee table, dimly lighting the room and the oil burner. Ryou was only just noticing the soft lavender and peppermint scent filling the room.

"The candles are lit because the lights in this room are far to bright. Bright lights will only worsen your headache. Dim lighting also relaxes you."

"I'll be fine really… I don't want to inconvenience you."

"Stop being stupid and take your shirt off so I can get started," Bakura said, a little more gruffly than he intended.

Ryou blushed, thankful that the dim lighting hid it.

"Are you sure? I mean it's just so much time and effort, just for me."

Before Bakura could even think of what he was saying, he mouth moved of its own accord.

"Effort and time that I don't mind giving to you. Come on," he said gently.

"Alright," Ryou mumbled as he pulled the t-shirt over his head, "but only till I'm feeling better, okay?"

Bakura smiled slightly, "Whatever you want."

Ryou lay face down on the floor, with his arms beside him, resisting the urge to giggle. His mother had given him a massage once before when he was younger and he was just so ticklish that he couldn't stop laughing.

"You got a hair tie or something? Your hair's going to get in the way."

"Umm…" Ryou fished around in his pockets, "Just an elastic band… will that do?"

"Yeah," Bakura said, as he took the elastic from Ryou's hand, letting his fingers rest there for a fraction longer than normal.

Ryou felt Bakura drag his fingers gently through his hair, gathering it up into a ponytail to the side. Bakura picked up the small amber coloured bottle, glad that Ryou's fetish for oils had given him what he needed, and poured a small amount of the clear, aromatic oil into his hands. Bakura gently, and somewhat hesitantly, placed his hands on Ryou's bare shoulders, causing him to get goosebumps.

_This is such a bad idea! _Ryou thought, blushing furiously at the contact.

"Are my hands cold?"

_Yes! A reason! _Ryou didn't trust his voice and nodded slightly, once again glad that the dim light hid his blushing face.

"Sorry," Bakura mumbled as he placed his hands on Ryou's shoulders once more, "You don't mind me doing this, do you?"

"No… it's actually very nice of you," Ryou mumbled into the floor.

Ryou missed the slight smile that played across Bakura's lips.

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence; Ryou blissfully in a place between sleep and consciousness and Bakura completely absorbed in his work. Bakura hadn't been working for very long when he could feel Ryou's shoulder muscles release their tension and relax. Bakura slowly began to move from Ryou's neck and shoulder muscles to his upper back, working the knots out of each muscle carefully and gently. Bakura glanced at Ryou who had his eyes closed in pure bliss.

Debating with himself on if he should speak, Bakura settled for a happy medium.

_Ryou? Are you awake?_ Bakura asked via their mind link, in a very gentle tone. 

_Mmmhmmm_ came the lazy response.

_Just making sure,_ Bakura said before returning his full attention to his work.

Satisfied that all the knots and tension in Ryou's upper back had been dispersed, he poured some more oil into his hands and gently began massaging Ryou's lower back, keeping intently focused on what he was doing so he could keep his emotions from surfacing.

Ryou was happily indulging in the massage he was receiving, and keeping his emotions at bay, when he felt gentle hands brush along his sides with a feather light touch. He jumped at the contact, green eyes opening in surprise. Bakura lifted his hands.

"What did I do?" He asked, wanting to make sure he hadn't done anything that caused Ryou to feel uncomfortable.

"N… nothing. Just t… ticklish," Ryou stammered, trying to slow his racing heart.

"You're sure?" Bakura took a breath and slowly let it out; Ryou's startled jump had surprised the tomb robber and had distracted him from his work. Once Ryou had settled back down, Bakura resumed what he was doing, though now he noticed the lovely tone that Ryou's skin was in the candlelight and how satiny smooth the grape seed oil made Ryou's skin feel beneath his hands.

Since Ryou had been startled into awareness, he couldn't help but notice the smooth, gentle strokes that Bakura was using to relax his muscles and soothe away his stress. Closing his eyes once more, Ryou tried to keep his attention away from Bakura's movements and just how close he was. Bakura ran his hands from Ryou's shoulders down his spine, causing the teen to shiver.

"Could you sit up for me?" Bakura asked softly, "I can't reach your arms properly."

Mutely, Ryou did as he was asked turning his gaze to the floor as Bakura massaged his right arm. Once he had finished with Ryou's right arm, he gently let go and moved to Ryou's left arm, noticing that the teen kept his gaze firmly on the carpet in front of him. Bakura kept a careful watch on Ryou's face as he worked;Ryou's eyes kept going to flick over to watch Bakura, but he stopped before he could catch a glimpse, refocusing on the floor. Bakura also noted that Ryou was rather pink on the cheeks, he smiled. Bakura took his other self's hand and interlocked their fingers before reaching out to tilt Ryou's face in his direction. Ryou's breath hitched as he looked into dark chocolate eyes unable to tear his gaze away from his other half. Bakura inched closer, captivated by the emerald green of Ryou's eyes. Their eyes slid shut as their lips met in a tender kiss. Raw emotion flooded down the link, filling the two with each other's feeling. Bakura pulled Ryou close as Ryou reached his arms around Bakura's neck. Slowly, the two pulled away and Bakura rested his head on Ryou's, their noses just touching.

"I love you," Bakura said simply, watching Ryou's eyes intently.

Ryou smiled, relief flooding through him, "I love you too," he whispered.

Bakura blinked, "Was that what had you so stressed out?"

Ryou looked away.

"You don't have to worry about that any more," Bakura said as he placed a hand on Ryou's neck, causing him to jump slightly. Bakura raised an eyebrow.

"I'm ticklish, okay?" he said shyly.

"I don't think so," Bakura whispered into his ear. The teen squirmed, "You're lying, my other self," he said before placing a kiss just below Ryou's ear. Caught off guard by both Bakura's actions and his own sudden rush of emotion, Ryou fell to the lounge, bringing Bakura with him.

"Relax," Bakura whispered, much how like Malik did when teasing Ryou. He quite happily obliged with Bakura's request, pulling Bakura into a kiss. The candles burning lower and lower – the two teens barely even noticed they'd gone out.

The next morning, Ryou awoke to find himself in Bakura's room, entangled in his embrace. Smiling to himself, he carefully got up out of the bed and made his way to his own room, searching for his mobile phone.

"I don't even remember going upstairs," he thought, blushing as he brushed his bangs out of his green eyes as he found his phone. He began typing a text message before glancing at the clock and continuing. Once he sent the message, he quietly returned to Bakura's room. Bakura shifted in his sleep, wrapping his arms around Ryou before he settled once more, Ryou falling asleep again in his loves arms.

A shrill beeping woke Malik from his blissful slumber. Poking his sandy blonde head from underneath the covers, he searched his bedside table for his phone. Finding it underneath some sheets of homework, he read the SMS, smiling as he read what was written.

_Hi Malik. It looks like I owe you fifty bucks – something interesting did happen last night!_

_Ryou_

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I hope you enjoyed it! Just some nice Ryou and Bakura fluff... please, leave a review. Ja ne! 

As a little side note, 'bucks' is an Australian term for 'Dollars' ...actually... there's probably quite a few Australian terms in there... me being Auzzie and all.P


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